With steadily eroding velocity and drastically waning effectiveness, Angels righty Jered Weaver appears to be nearing the end of the line of his MLB career. With his contract set to expire this winter, the veteran isn’t ready to answer questions about retirement just yet however.
“There’s still a lot of season left,” Weaver said over the weekend, per Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times. “When the time comes to answer those questions, I will.”
Though he has been surprisingly durable with 24 starts for a decimated Angels pitching staff this year, the 33-year-old Weaver is in the midst of a second consecutive miserable season. He has gone just 8-11 with a 5.47 ERA and a painfully low 69 strikeouts and has given up 17 earned runs in four August outings. Weaver’s infamously underwhelming fastball has fallen even further in 2016 to a laughable 83.8 miles per hour on average (per Fangraphs), and he has given up more home runs this season than ever before with still about eight starts left to make.
It’s been a swift and shocking fall from grace for a pitcher who used to be one of the most dominant ones in the American League. The Angels would probably want to give a farewell tour to Weaver, a homegrown talent who was their bona fide ace for many years and is the longest tenured player on their roster. But the dramatic deterioration of his skills could force the three-time All-Star to call it quits once the 2016 campaign is in the books.
H/T HardballTalk
